https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/
See that thread and actually read it. Get a card with bifurcation like those that have been recommended to you.
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MP All Models Bootable PCI SSD Cards/Drives for Mac Pro (NVMe M.2, U.2, EDSFF E3.S, etc.)
- Thread starter ZombiePhysicist
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https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/
See that thread and actually read it. Get a card with bifurcation like those that have been recommended to you.
In that thread it says about that card that I asked about “Asus Hyper M.2 x16 - (requires motherboard bifurcation support).”.
since you mentioned this bifurcation (whatever that is)- guess we have to wait and see if the new Mac Pro supports that? i don’t quite understand, like you said I should get a card with this support but then in the other thread it says,
that the MB had to have that on board...?) apologies for my lack of comprehension, it’s super techy for me..
Has it been OFFICIALLY determined the MP7,1 has mother/logic board bifurcation? Would be news to me.
You need a card that does that on the card itself. Those are the cards with a switch. That’s how you’ll get faster speeds via SINGLE PCIe vs needing four single blades in four PCIe slots to do the same thing.
You need a card that does that on the card itself. Those are the cards with a switch. That’s how you’ll get faster speeds via SINGLE PCIe vs needing four single blades in four PCIe slots to do the same thing.
Alright, so have to see and wait
how I understand, even a cheap PCIev3 card with a single EVO Pro on board Would give me speeds up to 3gb/s, right? Might be enough for me for now, just as a super speedy cache drive.
not sure what it’s quoted times are but I’ve seen real world read writes of 200MB/s with peaks above that here and there. Not sure about it’s seek time, but that’s really good for a spinner imo. I’m not sure if the performance of the 8tb Drive that comes with the j2i since I havent run it yet.
Right, but the challenge is it's an x8 card, not a x16 like the Highpoint (for instance). If you load it up with 4 x NVMe drives, the overall throughput will be limited when accessing all drives at once (eg: RAID).
PCI-E 3 x16 slots have an approximate bandwidth limitation of 128Gbits/sec. That means a x8 slot (or card) has half of that, or ~64Gbits/sec. One NVMe drive is theoretically capable of nuking an entire x16 slot because they can, at max, push 16GB/sec, or 128Gbits/sec. Actually hitting that kind of throughput out of a single NVMe is unlikely, however.
Now imaging stacking four of those into a single card that's limited to 64Gbits/sec.
(And remember when looking at throughput numbers, GBytes == 8 x Gbits.)
Yep. It fits within the x8 bandwidth limit. 6000MB/sec == 6GB/sec == 48Gbits/sec.
Real world PCIe 3.0 throughput in MBytes:
x8 = 5900~6200MB/s after overhead and switch losses
x16 = 11800~12000MB/s after overhead and switch losses
So x8 6200MB/s is more than enough for 4K / 8k prores video files? That’s all i’ll be using it for.
I think the ultimate point here is that in either case you're likely to be able to saturate the card. It's just that a x16 card literally gives you twice the bandwidth available. Is that enough to justify the cost difference? Only you can decide that, of course. Imagine 4 4TB drives stacked into one of these suckers configured in an 8TB RAID10 volume. You'll likely nudge into both the x8 and x16 bandwidth limit with that.
The question is, why you gonna buy an unproved x8 card when you can buy a rock solid x16 HighPoint SSD7101A-1 from frequent Amazon promos at around $275 to $300.
A single NVMe blade usually tops at 3GB/s.
PCIe x16 or x8 would only matter if you used all four blades as RAID 0 or JBOD.
All other RAID formats would not saturate the full x16 bandwidth
PCIe x16 or x8 would only matter if you used all four blades as RAID 0 or JBOD.
All other RAID formats would not saturate the full x16 bandwidth
There's also another benefit to the Highpoint, and that's their software able to take drives in two cards and RAID them together. An expensive solution for sure, but take my previous example of four 4TB drives in one card, and then double that. A RAID10'd 16TB volume of NVMe drives? Yes please, can I have another?
HighPoint SSD7101A-1 PCB revision 2.00 uses a PWM fan with variable rotation that have a lot less fan noise than my v1.01. You can always replace the fan for a less noisier model and install improved heatsinks if you are in a studio and fan noise makes you crazy. People here have parts list already to mod it.
Oh god welcome to PC modding land
no offense, just it sounds crazy, if you’re in the market for that kinda stuff you might as well get a hackintosh I think... 😇frankly, a fan is a deal breaker for my application. I wish HighPoint had a proper fanless heatsink.